Man jailed for owing nearly $114K in child support

ST. CHARLES TOWNSHIP – An Itasca man who was being held in the Kane County Jail on $1.355 million bond for not paying child support, court fines and contempt of court was released for inpatient hospital treatment, court records show.

As of Dec. 28, John E. Cassidy, 51, of the 300 block of Center Street, Itasca, owes $113,740.01 in back child support, court records show, stemming from a divorce in 2000 when the child was 3 years old. Records show that Cassidy did pay $24,206.31 in child support.

A sheriff’s deputy took Cassidy into custody Dec. 24 on an outstanding warrant while he was at Alexian Brothers Medical Center in Elk Grove Village, according to sheriff’s reports.

Kane County Judge John Dalton issued the warrant for Cassidy on June 2, 2017, which states a “full cash [bail] set at $135,554.99,” or 10 percent of the bond that was set.

Cassidy was in the process of being released from Alexian Brothers, but he told the deputy who came to pick him up that he “has serious ongoing health issues and was already on his deathbed and was concerned with being transported, let alone spending time in jail,” according to the report.

In an order Dec. 26, Dalton wrote, “[Cassidy] informs the court he knew this warrant [was] issued but did not turn himself in nor stay at his assigned halfway house which parole placed him at. Court leaves bond as is. [Cassidy] allowed three phone calls to raise bond.”

But after Cassidy spent three days in the Kane County Jail, Kane County Circuit Judge Joseph Grady granted him a “medical furlough from the custody … while he is an inpatient undergoing treatment,” court records show.

The Kane County State’s Attorney’s Office is to “coordinate with hospital security and take [Cassidy] back into custody upon release from hospital,” according to Grady’s order.

Records do not state what hospital Cassidy was sent to, nor the reason he was on parole.

According to court records, Cassidy worked as a plumber for various companies.

After he and his wife divorced in 2000, Cassidy repeatedly has been the subject of body writs or body attachments – warrants – for not paying child support and not coming to court.

Cassidy has seen various judges and been the subject of repeated searches at several addresses in towns he’s lived in over the years. Other than his address in Itasca, court records show that he lived in Crystal Lake, Elgin, South Elgin, Hanover Park, Rockford and Elk Grove Village.

Cassidy’s child support was set at $780 a month in July 2001, but he fell behind, records show.

By 2003, he was behind by $22,739.86, but by 2004, he had reduced that to $11,708.79, records show.

By Nov. 13, 2015, he was $99,919.89 in arrears, plus statutory interest of $30,389.30, Dalton noted in a body writ on Cassidy.

“[Defendant] failed to appear. Petitioner [his ex-wife] present and indicates she did not receive any money at all from [Cassidy] since 9/8/14,” Dalton wrote.